Days 11-12 [74km] - POW Strait → jesse bay
This part of the hike was mostly easy hiking along hard, gravel and dirt surfaces. The terrain undulated into river valleys. I began to see large amounts of permafrost thaw. This occurs where the permafrost is exposed on a slope, creating wide, shallow caves on the vast hillsides and generating small streams of silty water that polluted the main rivers.
My route led me on a long, gradual descent to De Salis bay. I saw arctic hares, muskox and more arctic fox along the route.
The researchers, Manning and MacPherson, stayed for nearly two months along De Salis bay in 1951.There was no sign of their camp, nor the various caches and other markers they reported.
They reported the bay was mostly ice covered in early July 1951, but when I arrived the bay was open water.
I walked along a thin sand wedge, for about 1km, which separated the lagoon from the bay. When I got to the end of this wedge there was a muddy delta which was too deep in mud to cross.
I walked several kilometers upstream before being able to cross.
I then continued 10km inland in order to camp further from Polar bear territory, eventually stopping at a hill that overlooked a small lake.
